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In Support of Taylor Swift, Economist

Never mind the feud with Kanye West, the pop star has waged more important fights defending the value of intellectual property.

Pop star Taylor Swift has been feuding in recent days with rapper Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian. The details of the drama are lurid and complicated, but young aficionados of Snapchat and Instagram have been following it all intently.

If only the same were true for other Taylor Swift feuds that have received less attention. Namely those the 26-year-old songstress has fought in defense of a principle often scorned by fellow celebrities and the social-media generation generally: the value of intellectual property. In battles against tech titans, Chinese e-commerce swindlers and others, Ms. Swift has repeatedly insisted on being paid for her music and brand—and in the process has taught some valuable lessons in basic economics.

This may be the “information wants to be free” era, when online content is glibly swiped by millions who would never dream of shoplifting, but Ms. Swift has a deep appreciation for the profit motive and the fruits it bestows on society. Last year she picked a fight with Apple after the company announced plans to launch its Apple Music streaming service with a three-month trial period during which users wouldn’t pay subscription fees and Apple wouldn’t pay royalties for the songs streamed. It was a win-win for Apple and its users—but for songwriters, it meant turning over their music at no charge to secure a spot on Apple’s platform. That is, until Ms. Swift published an open letter, “To Apple, Love Taylor.”

“I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company,” she said of Apple’s plans. “This is not about me” but “the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt,” she added. “Three months is a long time to ask people to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing. We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” Within hours Apple relented.

Ms. Swift had less luck trying to get the Spotify streaming service to restrict her songs to paying customers, so in 2014 she pulled her catalog from the platform entirely. Her manager said Spotify’s royalty payments are miserly compared with regular album revenues: “Don’t forget this is for the most successful artist in music today. What about the rest of the artists out there struggling to make a career?”

Ms. Swift’s most ambitious crusade may be in China, where she has launched branded clothing lines with special antipiracy mechanisms to combat rampant counterfeiting on e-commerce sites like Alibaba’s Taobao. Said one of the branding executives leading the effort: “It’s time for Chinese companies to say, ‘We don’t want to be known for piracy anymore.’ ” Good luck with that.

Writing for the Journal two years ago, Ms. Swift explained why she fights. “Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for.” She added: “My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but in every girl I meet, is that they all realize their worth and ask for it.” Those are goals worth feuding for.


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